'Outnumbered' on liberal media finally covering Hunter Biden scandal
The panel reacted to the main stream media's delayed reporting on Hunter Biden's laptop story.
The legacy media is finally shedding light on the growing scandal plaguing Hunter Biden, but the way the five liberal networks address (or don't address) his laptop they all dismissed during the 2020 presidential election is rather suspect.
CNN, MSNBC, ABC, CBS and NBC all reported this week how the years-long DOJ probe into Hunter Biden's finances is "heating up" as witnesses continue to give their testimony. President Biden's son is being investigated for potentially violating tax and foreign lobbying laws as well as alleged money laundering.
HUNTER BIDEN SAGA: WASHINGTON POST AUTHENTICATES LAPTOP AFTER DISMISSING ‘FAKE’ SCANDAL IN 2020
The five networks, along with the rest of the legacy media, infamously downplayed the bombshell report from the New York Post in the final weeks leading up to the 2020 election that put a spotlight on Hunter Biden's shady business dealings overseas based on damning emails that emerged from his laptop. At the time, the five networks either disregarded the scandal as right-wing conspiracy theories or the result of a "Russian disinformation" campaign.
The legacy media dismissed the bombshell reporting from the New York Post about Hunter Biden's laptop during the 2020 presidential election. (Getty images | New York Post)
This week, The Washington Post published a bombshell report about Hunter Biden's multimillion-dollar deal with a Chinese energy company, which has been swept up in the DOJ's investigation. As part of its reporting, the Post was able to authenticate the contents of the laptop.
CNN and MSNBC spent far more time covering former President Trump's remarks this week urging Russian President Vladimir Putin to look for "answers" regarding Hunter Biden's business dealings, particularly in Russia than the Hunter Biden scandal itself, which received zero coverage on their primetime shows Wednesday and Thursday night, according to Grabien transcripts.
While MSNBC did briefly address Washington Post's reporting about the president son and his ties to the Chinese energy company, it completely ignored how the Post authenticated the controversial laptop.
The Peacock network was not alone. Neither ABC nor CBS mentioned that the laptop they previously dismissed has now been verified on their morning and evening newscasts, according to transcripts.
Photo credit: Getty Images
After overlooking the laptop on Wednesday evening and completely ignoring Hunter Biden the next morning, NBC finally addressed the laptop on "NBC Nightly News."
"People familiar with the federal investigation of Hunter Biden, which he himself disclosed a year and a half ago, say it is broader than he first described it with a growing number of witnesses called before a grand jury," NBC News correspondent Pete Williams said. "It began as an examination of whether he paid all the taxes he should have on income from his work for foreign companies, including Burisma Holdings, a Ukrainian energy company. This email from a former business partner, for example, found on a laptop Biden used, said he failed to disclose $400,000 paid by the Ukrainian company."
"That laptop which he took to a Delaware shop to get repaired but never reclaimed was seized by the FBI, but not before Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani got a copy of its hard drive, which he shared with congressional Republicans," Williams added.
CNN briefly addressed the legitimacy of Hunter Biden's laptop while at the same time downplaying it on its poorly-watched morning program "New Day."
"So there's a lot of issues that the Justice Department is looking into including, of course, this laptop that on the right-wing, has featured a lot of stories by about Hunter Biden," CNN correspondent Evan Pérez told anchor Brianna Keilar on Wednesday. "We know the FBI has possession of it and that they believe it is his laptop, that the contents of it are his. The question of whether this is relevant to the investigation, we don't know."
Vice President-elect Joe Biden stands with his son Hunter during a re-enactment of the Senate oath ceremony in the Old Senate Chamber on Capitol Hill on Jan. 6, 2009. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, File)
Moments later, CNN White House correspondent John Harwood rushed to defend President Biden, baselessly claiming there was "zero evidence" that Hunter Biden's father is connected to the alleged corruption.
"It seems pretty clear that Hunter Biden was trading on his father’s name to make a lot of money, he’s had a difficult life, but until someone makes a nexus between what Hunter Biden has done and official activities of Vice President Biden or President Biden, it’s a not-pretty picture, but it’s not really of much public import in terms of the policy of the United States or the administration of the government," Harwood told Keilar.
CNN was previously caught spiking the Hunter Biden laptop story in the final weeks of the 2020 presidential election, according to recordings released by Project Veritas in December 2020.
"Obviously, we're not going with the New York Post story right now on Hunter Biden," CNN political director David Chalian said during a conference call on Oct. 14, the same day the New York Post published its first story on Hunter Biden's emails. Chalian later insisted the report was "giving its marching orders" to the "right-wing echo chamber about what to talk about today."
"The Trump media, you know, moves immediately from — OK, well, never mind — the [Michael Flynn] unmasking was, you know, found to be completely nonsensical to the latest alleged scandal and expects everybody to just follow suit," then-CNN president Jeff Zucker told his staff on Oct. 16. "So, I don't think that we should be repeating unsubstantiated smears just because the right-wing media suggests that we should."
Former CNN president Jeff Zucker, CNN political director David Chalian and Hunter Biden.
Apparently such messaging was received by CNN talent like Jake Tapper, who dismissed the allegations against Hunter Biden as "too disgusting" to repeat on-air during the 2020 election and said the "right wing is going crazy."
CNN media correspondent Brian Stelter suggested the Hunter Biden scandal was "manufactured" and a product of pro-Trump "whataboutism."
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"For all we know, these emails were made up, or maybe some are real and some are fakes, we don't know," Stelter told his viewers at the time. "But we do know that this is a classic example of the right-wing media machine."
The latest reporting came days after The New York Times published its own report about the DOJ's investigation into Hunter Biden, which also authenticated his laptop.
Fox News' Brian Flood contributed to this report.
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